7900GS and multiple displays (WS monitor and WS TV) issues..

Good day all,

I'm hoping that someone can help me.

I finally just got myself a 20.1" wide screen monitor and since I was moving computer equipment around I thought I'd give a try using two display devices connected to my 7900gs and see if I can get some of the vids/recording et al I have on my computer to display on my TV.

My WS monitor is set as the default display, connected to 'port' 1 on the video card via DVI.

My TV (Toshiba 52" DLP) is connected via DLP through my A/V processor.

Used Nvidias control panel (also have the eVGA 680i mobo) to setup the second display as just a clone of the first.

I thought things were great, could see my desktop, mouse movements etc (well my daughter could as my computer area is behind the TV) but then I dug out the ATI BOB remote I forgot I had around so I could see it too.

The problem occurs when I try to start a video - I get a black screen where the video should be being played??? I tried both Windows Media Player 11 and VLC media player. When windowed, I see the application menues et al and background stuff but the playing window is black. If I make the playing window full screen, I just get a black screen on the TV - everything displays fine on the monitor.

Next test, I changed from cloning screen 1 to screen 2 to extending screen 1 to screen 2. When I moved the playing move to the extend screen it actually showed up playing on the TV and I could even make if full screen.

Is this HOW it should be working? Any time in the past that I have used multiple displays it has always been for business purposes and worked as I figured, either cloned or extended and my setup here does as well, with everything except video.... haven't even started to look at sound to the A/V process yet, but that will be next

I am running XP Pro w/SP2 not Window Media Center, would that make a difference to the video output?

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

I`ve been dealing with this issue for a couple of years now. Tried several different platforms as well as graphic card and microsoft os`s including MC and Vista beta . Problem same as yours every time,although I have been able to use clone mode as well as extend SOMETIMES. This seems to be HOW it works. I`ll have to leave it to someone with more tech expertise than me to explain why. Kind of like the old saw about a dog walking on his back legs. Not a very elegant solution :.) BTW I found Media player Classic best at this app.